The novel "Then" (1909) by the outstanding prose writer Natsume Sōseki is devoted to the moral dilemma of a person who has crossed the boundary of youth. This is the typical conflict for a Japanese man between duty and feeling. Duty must come first, yet the book’s hero—a idle aristocrat living on his father’s and brother’s money—believes that the main thing is not duty, but harmony with oneself, which can be achieved only by fulfilling one’s desires. The novel recreates the life of Japan at the end of the Meiji period with great attention to historical details.